


4D Chess

by fairlycertain



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alastor is in Hell for a Reason (Hazbin Hotel), Blood and Violence, Dark!Charlie, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Mean! Alastor, Mean!OC, Mental Health Issues, Mild Gore, OC is not innocent, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rape/Non-con Elements, Violence, Yandere Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:01:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22779862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairlycertain/pseuds/fairlycertain
Summary: "With the absurd shock that not only had she died and went to hell, she realized that she had gone to the wrong hell, a fictional one.The one that had a murderous deer demon with superpowers."When Sophie died, she went to the wrong hell. Never having been much for people, she had sought entertainment in books and media before she died. Hazbin Hotel to be exact. It was with a stark realization that she recognized the red-haired deer demon sitting in the corner of the Lobby as Alastor, The Radio Demon. He noticed.And he wanted to know more.
Relationships: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	4D Chess

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to get this on paper. I'm so sorry. 
> 
> P.s. Read the tags! 
> 
> Edit, 02/20/2020:  
> Oh my god, I can't believe people liked it! I went through the first chapter again and revised it, since it didn't feel fleshed out enough. I'm working on chapter two as we speak :)

Sophie was slowly but gradually awoken from her unconscious state by loud noises. With each new noise her head rang with pain and a dull ache resided in forehead. She was lying on something hard, she realized, and her body felt positively mangled. She could hear people chattering and bustling about close to her. She was not able to catch any singular word nor was Sophie able to make out what their activities were about.

“Boys!” A man yelled, and she contorted her face in irritation from the pain in her head that was magnified by the shouting. Someone, no, a group of people were getting closer to her, she could hear it.

“We have a new one, just spawned and still fresh.” The voice hollered again. 

“Jus’ line up the grinder then.” A nasal voice replied with an intent so evil that Sophie snapped her eyes open. 

She blinked rapidly, feeling her hair plastered to her sweating face, by _God_ was it hot in there and tried to make sense of the scene before her eyes. She saw a red figure looming over her, grinning and she twisted her head to look in the direction of the sudden heavy noise as something massive was dragged over to her location. 

Her heat flushed face almost paled to white as she saw a tall monster, shuffling a large machine in front of itself. The monster only had one eye and looked rather unpleasant but the aura that emanated from the machine was almost malevolent. With closer scrutiny Sophie realized that the large machinery was a meat grinder.

_A large one._

In the large gaping shaft of the meat grinder were bloody streaks and bits of meat. She could only wonder about the meat’s origins but decided that she didn’t want to stay long enough to find out. Sophie scrambled to her shaky legs and tried to run away from the demons that laughed at her distress, only to falter and fall as her muscles failed her. They felt unused and tired.

A strong, clawed hand grabbed her ankle and dragged her closer to the meat grinder. 

She tried to blink the tears away that threatened to escape, her chest was heaving, and she found it hard to breathe with the fear paralyzing her and the hot air. She couldn’t make sense of the situation; she couldn’t just figure out the right next step to get out of a sticky situation like she always did, and it seemed that she would be punished for her weakness with death via meat grinder.

What terrified her most was that she wasn’t in control, she was _always_ in control.

She waited with bated breath for the final blow to arrive but slowly opened her eyes and noticed that the clawed appendage holding her ankle had gone slack. Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to take in the blue light that glowed from the eyes of the demon holding her. He seemed frozen and when she looked around, the others did too. Their faces seemed emotionless and their movements were stilled.

She also felt different, she felt calm and… in control for some reason. She felt large, "multiple" even, she felt like she was more than just herself, if that made any sense.

As she looked at the demon again and her eyes wandered to his glowing ones, she could feel herself just…

s p l i t t i n g

She could see herself from multiple angles, from the demons’ various perspectives before they were possessed by the blue light, she concluded. It was mind bending, jumping between the different points of view but she could see that her own eyes were also illuminated with blue light. Her mouth was open as she panted from the heat of the barren landscape around her and she could see sharp canines where her pearly whites used to be.

Her skin was pale, and her hair had turned more of a pale blonde color than it had before, even slightly silver. Poking out of her head were two cat ears and she even sported a cat tail. She switched effortlessly between perspectives as she took in the new changes to her form. She seemed stronger and her nails were closer to actual claws than anything else.

When she had finished observing herself and the demons from the multiple perspectives she now wielded, she found herself at an impasse.

None of them were waking up from their almost comatose state. She needed to get her butt out of there ASAP before they came to. She shook her foot to free herself of the hand holding her but stilled as she realized that the demons repeated the movement, some of them falling.

Confusingly, some perspectives were now from the ground up.

Sophie stilled and thought.

Then she smirked.

She did what she did best when things weren’t going her way.

She made the problems disappear. One by one.

\----

Before she had… taken care of the problem, she had made the tall demon push the meat grinder behind a nearby boulder. It didn’t do much she supposed but it did hide it slightly from view. She had continued to walk in the hot, maroon landscape for a long time after that.

Sophie didn’t know why she had hidden the grinder before she killed them, but she had gone along with her instincts. It was best not to have such an asset out in the open if she would need to return to it. It also would bring her no favors if the heap of meat would be discovered by others.

She needed to get away before anyone saw.

In the quietness of the vast unoccupied land before her she was able to reflect on the past events that had happened and realized with disdain that she was in fact, in Hell. It felt awfully unfair to her, since she had never murdered anyone in her living life. If anything, she had lived a picture-perfect life, striving for success and greatness at her job.

If her life had been a checklist, every mark would have been checked.

She had lived up to the expectations of her father.

She had gotten a degree or two.

She had taken over the family company and made everyone respect her, bringing their shareholders new heights of annual profits that hadn’t been seen before.

With a brooding look, she wondered just how disappointed her father would be if he knew that she had ended up in hell. She felt something nasty build within her chest, righteous anger.

How _dare_ God put her in Hell?

Sophie scowled and pursed her lips as she walked through the burning sand with out any footwear.

This whole situation had obviously been a careless mistake.

_Can’t trust anyone to do anything right, not even God._

Her scowl twisted into a sneer, no matter how many times she experienced it she would always continue to be surprised at the _utter incompetence_ of other people.

And Gods, Sophie added in her mind.

Fine, she relented. She had for the most part ignored any tokens of friendships and social connections that weren’t business based while she had been alive. Not really seeing the point in relationships with others unless she was forced to or could gain something from it. 

She had gotten a bit lonely of course, but preferred reading stories or indulging in media where she could control the outcome. If she was ever bored by a character in a story, she could just stop reading the book or change the channel! When she did that to actual people, they tended to become hostile or god forbid, needier than before. Real people didn’t fancy being ignored for months on end when Sophie became obsessed with reaching her goals or beating her rivals in a challenge.

Books did, however. They waited and waited until she would remember them, welcoming her with open arms and no judgement.

Considering her unsociable disposition, she gave up on relationships, since rumors of her being a cold-hearted bitch spread fast in the workplace, putting her at a disadvantage. It had been a revelation then, when she realized that people tended to put her on a pedestal when she seemed above socializing with other people. She gained shallow popularity and somewhat of a notorious reputation without having to expend any energy on it. Her reputation basically sustained itself, much to her delight.

But, she thought to God, you can’t just possibly designate me to eternal damnation just for not having friends!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. All in all, God wasn’t playing by the rules and it infuriated her to no end. Hell, he hadn’t even given out any rules at all!

Her situation was so unwarranted and unfair, how was she even supposed to be able to get to Heaven if God didn’t follow a concise pattern for her to exploit for her own benefit? It’s like he didn’t even want anyone playing the game.

She shook her head, as to show her displeasure of Gods decision, even though no one was watching.

With a heavy mind, she continued to trek through the wilderness.

\---

Sophie thought she was about to pass out and was seeing hallucinations when she saw a booth in the middle of nowhere. She turned out to be fully conscious however and it indeed was a booth, it was empty for the most part but held a bunch of flyers.

Picking up a brochure she examined the headline.

“The Happy Hotel” it read.

Giving the paper a once over, she furrowed her brow. A place for sinners to repent and go to Heaven?

She mulled over the idea, her tongue clicking against her gum. It seemed like her next rational stop. If this hotel was able to transport sinners into Heaven, she would probably be able to clear up the confusion of her _incorrect_ labeling as a Hell resident with those in charge.

Finally, something that made sense. Of course, there was a logical path to follow to get what she wanted. Feeling less miffed than before, she started to make her way to the hotel per the instructions on the back of the flyer.

\----

Sophie only had to knock twice before the door was thrown open, a brilliant blonde demoness answering her with a big grin.

“Hello!” Her voice sang out, it was pleasing, Sophie noted, but high pitched with excitement.

“Oh, welcome. I’m Charlie Magne and-and I’m the manager of this hotel, the Happy Hotel. So happy to be of service!” Her dark eyes twinkled anticipation and her pink rosy cheeks were almost squished behind her big smile.

Sophie was already grimacing inside, a cheerful one, how dreadful. She readied herself, with a fake smile on her face and fabricated naivety in her voice, she began playing the game.

“Well thank you Charlie, it’s a pleasure. I’m actually new here, lovely to meet you.” Sophie leaned slightly closer to Charlie and made sure to mirror her open, hospitable body language.

Charlie lit up like a lamp and Sophie was sure she saw the tiniest tinge of a blush.

“Oh, puh-pshh, please, please come in. The pleasure is all mine.” The demoness motioned her inside with a swish of her hand and Sophie entered.

“Miss Charlie?” She inquired with a touch of well-honed politeness.

“Yes?” Charlie replied as she moved to close the door behind them. 

“I was wondering if I could speak to the one who’s in charge here.” Sophie chose her words carefully, Charlie had introduced herself as the manager, but she doubted that a mere middle manager would be able to assist her with her... issue. Sophie noticed that Charlie did the slightest double-take at her words, it was faint, but she picked up on it. 

Sophie worried if she had perhaps offended her, and offended people aren’t useful. Quick to smooth over any crinkles in communication, she rushed to add:

“W-what I mean is that I believe that there’s been a mistake, you see. I’m not supposed to be in Hell-.” As Sophie fumbled through an explanation which would simultaneously allow her to keep Charlies favor and solving her unfortunate predicament at the same time, she spotted something… vexing start to form in her eyes.

_Pity._

“Ah… You’re really new here, aren’t you?” Charlie asked her, her tone slightly softer than before.

Now it was Sophie’s turn to do a double-take, pity? _Pity?_ How dare Charlie look down on her like that?

Like she was some raving mad, lunatic of a woman who didn’t realize that yes, she was supposed to be in Hell?

Sophie resisted the urge to grind her teeth together because of the frustration.

“I am, and as I just said this doesn’t make any lick of sense. I belong in Heaven, not Hell and I need to speak to someone who handles the… what do you call it? Processing, labeling, the admin of the filing system perhaps.”

Sophie went a bit off track as she recounted the possible routes which might have been responsible for her judgement and she was able to stop herself from talking any more as she saw the weirdest look that came over Charlie’s face. For a moment she suspected that the demoness was trying not to laugh.

With a slight inhale and a pause, Charlie spoke mindfully.

“Well, the Happy Hotel _is_ meant for demons who want to transcend to Heaven, so I guess you’re at least in the right place.” 

Sophie could feel her eye twitch with irritation of being so expertly _handled_ by the customer savvy manager in front of her. Charlie however could sense the new demoness being ready to butt in with a retort, so she continued.

“Trust me, I do know that coming down here for the first time can be hard, but can I please ask you do sit down for a bit while I fetch some documents? They can help with the transition here. You can ask me any questions you like after that.”

Sophie clenched her teeth, whatever rebuttal that she had ready died on her lips as she realized that Charlie had a fixed perspective of her current situation that she couldn’t influence so easily. How many demons didn’t think they deserved to be in Hell when they came there for the first time?

No, Sophie thought. There was no point in trying to convince Charlie until she had more of a social ground with her to stand on, by studying her and avoiding making rash moves in unfamiliar territory.

Convincing people was an art, if she went at it with too much force at the beginning, she’d fail, and her unknowing volunteer would be paranoid and resistant to any change in perspective after that. So, she would bide her time and allow Charlie to go through the motions and finish with the routine procedures of welcoming new demons. As soon as Sophie would learn more, had a bit more freedom and a bit more _influence_ , she would find who ever had the real power in this place and make them take her to Heaven.

With a polite smile, she nodded wordlessly to Charlie and the tall blonde demoness skipped away with promises of tea and a great chat when she would return.

As soon as Charlie turned around, Sophie’s polite smile dropped, and she glared daggers after the petite blonde. She pursed her lips and felt her tail flick in annoyance.

She’s not acting according to my script, Sophie thought.

How awfully stubborn and unpredictable people could be, she mused. Just when she thought that she’d handled all the variables and foreseen any possible outcome, people would react impulsively. It was something irked her to no end, she was able to manipulate people at some level, but sometimes Sophie felt like she couldn’t just _click_ with others. No matter how she tried to understand them, she didn’t quite get why people did the things they did.

She felt her body freeze, apart from her new ears who rotated to the direction of the slow clap that echoed through the lobby.

Sophie snapped her head towards the sound, on edge and knowing that such an egotistical maneuver warned of nothing pleasant for her. She saw a tall, looming demon sitting in a chair in the lobby, her eyes narrowed as she realized that she hadn’t noticed him at all. How long had he been sitting there? He was dressed in a red dapper suit and seemed to be some sort of a deer demon hybrid.

Her eyes widened slightly as she took in his presence, he was grinning oh so knowingly, so _cruelly,_ that she almost felt naked. A bit to late, she brought up her mask and the polite smile that she had so thoughtlessly discarded beforehand was back up. She acted like nothing was amiss but, with dread she realized that he had noticed.

Puzzled, she heard the slightest buzz of static before the demon spoke.

“Why, I haven’t seen such a performance since the good old days in 1928!” He rose to his full height from the chair and she couldn’t help but feel intimidated. His voice was extremely off putting, with a static interference that came and went as he talked.

“However do you pull it off, my dear?” The smugness just rolled off his tongue and that feeling of being dominated, a feeling that she loathed, snapped her back to reality. He was advancing quickly upon her, crossing the lobby in long strides. She fought taking an involuntary step back, since it would be the impolite thing to do. It would be a show of weakness, admittance that she feared him on some level and Sophie was nothing if not polite.

“Excuse me? I don’t seem to follow.” The retort came naturally along with the muted fake expression of worry on her face. She would play ignorant, Sophie decided.

His grin only seemed to grow larger, his red eyes narrowed as they homed in on her. The space between them was getting smaller at an alarming rate. The demon towered over her and to her great dismay she had unconsciously backed up ever so slightly to widen the gap between them, it only seemed to egg on the malicious flare in his gaze-

Alastor. The Radio Demon.

Memories flooded into her mind, countless nights of scouring the internet for entertainment; for a brief time in her life she had indulged in Hazbin Hotel fanfiction-

_Oh God, not the Happy Hotel, this is the Hazbin Hotel! How could I not remember?_

Sophie was hit in the face with the absurd shock that not only had she died and gone to Hell, she had gone to the wrong Hell, a fictional one.

The one that had a murderous deer demon with superpowers. Yeah, that Hell.

 _This is not following any type of a concise, predictable pattern_ _!_ She screamed inside her head, feeling shaken by the discovery. Her face didn’t portray anything less than a polite smile and a wary look at Alastor. Sophie’s mask was well practiced but she couldn’t control the agitation of her tail as it occasionally flicked in rebellion.

How mortifying.

He raised an eyebrow, that grin ever present and bent down to her. His fingers grabbed her chin and controlled her by moving her face to the left, then right as he gave her a good once-over. His smile getting more wicked as he continued his administrations. She was so dumbfounded by his actions that she didn’t even slap his hand away with a “fuck off!”.

It had been such a long time since she had been this disrespected and overlooked, it reminded her of the vile men in her youth that had controlled her and scared her into submission. She felt many emotions battle under the surface of her mask but the strongest one was rage.

He was touching her, without her permission?

_Unacceptable._

Sophie took another step away from the demon, moving her hand up to bat his hand away and with a polite but _cold_ “Please refrain from touching me, ~~pig~~ ” ready on her lips she found her efforts to be unsuccessful. Suddenly his fingers seemed more like claws moved from her chin and dug into her jaw, effectively holding her in place. She looked at him in shock and he bent closer to her height, his red eyes boring holes into her blue ones.

“It seems my reputation precedes me; would it be rude to assume that you’ve heard of me before?” His voice had started jovially but it was tainted with that awful distortion of static, the question ending in a deeper, more threatening tone.

She felt all her hairs rise on end and she felt the suffocating danger that the demon imposed and while she was frantically going through relevant details in her mind, her bodies autopilot took over. She instinctively smiled as she was used to doing when threatened.

“I…can’t say that I have.” She was able to deliver, his presence so close to her was intoxicating, she could almost feel his hot breath on her lips. It made it harder to focus. Sophie was trying to read him as she discretely looked him up and down. She recalled every detail that she remembered that she thought might be usable. Alastor was a narcissist and she had been fluent in manipulating them while alive.

While manipulating Charlie she had tried to dominate the demoness, to gently, but _firmly_ lead her to the right conclusion. She wasn’t used to her authority being questioned by such a seemingly kind and empathetic woman as Charlie. Her attempt had surprisingly failed and her recent “blast to the past” was able to shed light on the subject. The demoness hadn’t been weak, she was the Princess of Hell and held unknown powers, Sophie recalled from her memory. She had acted on certain assumptions that would clearly need to be revised before she attempted to influence Charlie again.

But such a tactic, even if revised would be useless on Alastor. Narcissists were particularly sensitive to any overt attempts of manipulation and he’d rise to the challenge and see her as a threat.

No, she contemplated, her influence on him need to be of the _covert_ kind. She couldn’t dominate him so blatantly as he was doing to her in that moment, the power difference was enormous, and she knew it. Sophie would have to bust out her old meek non-threatening demeanor, the one she used when infiltrating foreign hostile work environments.

Oh, how she just detested playing the part, but she had done it for pompous sexist asses before and she’d do it again, with the same goal in mind; neutralize them.

She was rudely brought out of her thoughts when his claws tightened around her jaw, almost drawing blood but not quite. Going by his knowing red gaze, she worried that he might have recognized her calculating stare. She saw the grin on his face widen even more and with a near undetectable shudder she felt like he wasn’t just smiling anymore, he seemed to be getting ready to eat her alive. 

Alastor leaned closer to her and spoke in a low voice, that was largely uninterrupted by static, but she had to strain to hear it.

“Don’t lie to me, darling. It’s simply unbecoming of a lady.” She fought the urge to run out of the house.

She suddenly heard Charlie speak behind her.

“Thanks for the wait, hold up. I think I didn’t catch your name before?” Sophie looked over to Charlie, who was a bit startled by the wild, almost feral glint in Sophie’s eyes. But before Charlie could blink that glint was gone and Sophie smiled politely and regarded her with a cool gaze. Alastor had up and _vanished_ before Charlie had entered the lobby.

“It’s Sophrona, but you can just call me Sophie for short.” She smiled with a little more gusto than usually, trying to give off a “friendly” vibe to Charlie, who smiled and motioned her to follow into another room.

After a bit of a mental pep talk, she walked with resignation after Charlie. Sophie couldn’t get rid of the burning feeling on her back, like somebody was _watching_.

She hated her current situation; the game was full of unpredictable variables and she did not have control.

However, she thought with a malevolent smirk, she could at least comfort herself by the fact that there were, indeed rules in the game, a way to rig the board in her favor. As Sophie stared at Charlie’s back, her eyes began to glow blue.


End file.
